Using a tax agent or tax service

Upcoming changes to tax agent authorisations

Revenue is withdrawing the A2 process for Pay As You Earn (PAYE) taxpayers. This facility allowed PAYE taxpayers to authorise refunds or repayments to be paid into their agent’s bank account. These repayments include overpayments such as:

• Income Tax
• and
• Universal Social Charge (USC).

Revenue has withdrawn the A2 process for any new clients who sign up to an agent with effect from 1 January 2025. The A2 process will be withdrawn for any existing clients who signed up before 1 January 2025 by 31 December 2025.

Revenue will remove all agent bank account details from customer records by 31 December 2025. From 1 January 2026, the A2 process will no longer be available.

Note

You should check the bank account details on your myAccount record to ensure that they are yours. This will ensure that any future refund can be processed directly to you without delay.

The benefits of ending this process include:

• reducing risks to taxpayers
• stopping unauthorised changes to customer bank details
• and
• eliminating the need for agents to retain refunds where they are unable to contact the client.

Revenue recognises the valuable contribution agents make to helping their clients voluntarily comply with their tax and duty obligations. Withdrawing the A2 process will not prevent PAYE taxpayers employing an agent to file their PAYE returns.